Christmas week celebrations!!!

What a fun week we have had! The kids have been in great moods, not overly tired or sugared up, and even us siblings have gotten along :) We have movie nights, game night, and even a little PPV fight night. Here are some pic high-lights!

Little Lettie and Sassy got matching vests from Tio Marcos and Haley and they worked out perfect for our giant family pictures the next morning!

The kids love to drink out of the adults water bottles, so Sissy found kid sized ones for "Damma" to give to the kids and they haven't stopped drinking since! (And they each got their own color.)

Garrett loves to hold baby Addelyn and he smiles all the time! Addelyn has done really well letting the kids hold and play with her all the time and dealing with the "happy noise"

Haley got to have her very own, private audience to watch her open presents since she didn't get to join us until Christmas night. Marcos loves to tease Haley about her eyes not being open in pictures but she looks great in this one!

Adam and Melissa got Marcos this great running suit for Christmas (they didn't get the real gift done until later) so he wore it for the entire day, just so people would wonder if he really liked it that much!


Then Friday, we got to have a girls outing after family pics, so we picked to have pedis!

Sassy got to pick out her own color...pink of course!

She was totally enthralled in what Sonja was doing to her toes...

That is some hot pink!

Not a happier 2 year old in the state!

Thanks "sissy's" for all the fun!!!

New Cousins

Last night we had a "Sibling Movie Night" (we missed you Haley and Marcos!) at Cheeto and Shena's house with Cookout milkshakes, and watched "Christmas Vacation" (Arellano classic). The 2 youngest Arellano's weren't into sleeping, and they can't repeat all the lines that shouldn't be repeated from that movie, so they stayed up with us.


Little Lettie was not too sure about Addelyn...

Addelyn was not too sure about Little Lettie...

But it didn't take long for Little Lettie to want to hold her, the whole time! She would get so upset when her turn was over! I think she needs a little sister too!

Shena was making Addelyn's stocking and Lettie thought it was a great hat!

Thanks to my siblings for hanging out and having fun!

Kids Sleepover...

We got to have the kids over for a pre-Christmas party this last weekend and it was so fun! The kids has been a little worried about Tia not having any Christmas decorations or a Christmas Tree, so our project for the night was a gingerbread tree...

Cade showing his muscles...his dad is so jealous!

Sassy helping with the tree and Cade is posing for Kelson who is taking the picture.

Tio and the kids.

Sassy taking her picture with Tio.

Cade now taking his shot.

This was Addy's Rudolph outfit and I just loved it! She did not stay the night with us for obvious reasons, but she will get to before we know it!

We love to have the kids over even if we let them eat what they want, stay up way too late, and be hyper! Thankfully their parents forget what they are like the day after and let them come back! Thanks for the fun kids!

Santa Clause is coming to town...

"We" had a special visit last night from Santa at Cheeto and Shena's house, and I of course, had to go too.

I love this smile of Cade's! He was the brave one that went first to show his siblings how it goes...all of his requests were about his favorite football teams! What else would you expect from a kid that is so much like Cheeto?

Kelson only had one request, a real light saber (how ever you spell it), but Santa said that they might have to improvise on that one since they aren't really safe for kids to have.

Addelyn did great! I think that she is the only one who can say that she has been good all year!

Here is the special family with their special guest. And great Santa Panther hats courtesy of Tia!

Sassy was not too fond of him and had a death grip on me when it was her turn to sit on his lap (thus I have no pictures of that) but we finally convinced her that she could at least give him a love before he left and she happily obliged!

Kelson then went on to sing "Santa Clause is coming to town" while he took a bath...gotta love sweet little kids at Christmas! Thanks Cheeto and Shena for letting me come over!

Silly dog owners...

I know that this is going to make me look like the dog lady, but I just couldn't resist and my brother-in-law requested an updated picture of Kris and Bofo. But, if anyone ever gets a calender or Christmas card with just my dog and dressed in all different outfits, please do have an intervention to save the poor dog! But I must say that he really is cute!

I think poor Bofo is embarrassed, at least he got to wear the Panther hat and not a Broncos! :)

Poor Bofo, he has ridiculous owners...Kris wanted to take his picture with the Panthers Santa hat on and he even had to hold his head up...

Go Panthers! I mean Broncos!!

Our game finally came yesterday in Charlotte! We were so excited and got to the stadium 2 hours before the game started! This was my first NFL game, so I wanted to get the full experience!



This is "Christmas Panther", she is very festive. If you notice the banner here in the bottom right corner, it says "Bag-Check Line" and I of course had a bag with all my goodies. I read the back of the ticket before we left the house to see if there was anything that we couldn't take, and there wasn't, and Cheeto had given us a football to get signed so I put it in our bag. We get up to the bag check and the guy said "sorry but no footballs are allowed in the game" what the!?!? Its a football game! So we had to either hike back to the car, or they had a "Toys for Tots" run by the Marine Corp, so we hope some kid loves his un-signed football! Now we just have to find another to give to Cheeto.

I love these self taken couple portraits! I am sure that my brothers will get to make lots of fun at me for this one.

This is our team after their prayer huddle! I wonder what they say in those...

Our seats were great! They are up high enough to be able to see the whole game easily, but close enough to hear it too! This win made us undefeated at home this year, so hopefully we will win one of our next 2 games to win our division. I was kind of sad for Kris that his Broncos didn't look so hot, but I did love the game! He was gracious enough to let me celebrate with the chicks next to me and didn't even scowl at me once! It started to rain with just under 10minutes left, and I have been fighting bronchitis for 3 weeks, so we left a few minutes early. On my way down the stairs a migraine hit me, so Kris had to drive and let me be sick. All in all we had a great time!

It worked!

So I decided that I would give Kris his surprise when he came to Mom's to help move in furniture (she finally got some new carpet).

I figured that that would give him a little extra pep in his step. He opened the envelope and said "oh, thanks"

and then read the tickets and realized that it was for the Broncos game and he gave me a little more excitement.
So needless to say, he got the furniture moved in and put back together in no time. Our little Addelyn was the supervisor! She did a fabulous job in that great outfit that she was wearing.

Broncos' Tix = Good Wife

That is what I am hoping for anyway...
I work with some incredibly generous people, and one of the firm partners heard that Kris was a Broncos fan and offered his tickets when they come to play the Panthers (which I love)!
Kris still doesn't know (he never reads our blog),

so I got him a jersey (which he has already tried on because I had to make sure that it fits before the game, so he thinks that it is for football Sundays at Grandma's house),

made him a blanket to take to the game (I chose the outside tickets and the game starts at 4, so I am sure that it will be cold),

and got a new digital camera to capture it all. At this point I hope that he will think that this will be fun, and like the surprise even though he hates to give or receive them. So I took pics of the blanket and was so excited to do this post, and now I can't get the pics downloaded...does bronchitis cause brain damage?
We (mostly me) have been sick for a couple weeks and I got Kris to finally go to the Dr. last night and got him some cough medicine before he ends up sounding like me and having to be out of work for a week. Marcos calls me a door knob lick-er and swears that being home is like being in a petri dish. I am off to find a card to put the tickets in to give to Kris...wish me luck! And I will try to get pics up soon...I finally figured it out!

For Fun

I thought this would be fun! And to humor my Sissy ;)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real, although I am not putting one up this year...Bofo doesn't care
3. When do you put up the tree? Next year
4. Do you like eggnog? Love it
5. Favorite gift received as a child? Anything tom-boyish
6. Hardest person to buy for? Not sure
7. Easiest person to buy for? Shena usually gives me all the ideas, so its all easy!
8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, Santa kneeling down to Jesus, I just don't know where it is
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail - not real committed to it though
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Strep throat, get it every year, although this year I started with bronchitis for Thanksgiving!
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation & Polar Express
12. When do you start shopping? Whenever Sissy has an idea
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? hasn't everyone :) (its called white elephant)
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I just love food, but Carolyns treats are my favorite!!
15. Lights on the tree? Alot of whatever
16. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night, but there are so many!
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay home
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes, especially if I sing the song.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Bow
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not getting enough time with family and friends, there never is enough time!
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the ones that have a memory with them
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Tamales, (I'm mexican!) &Honey Baked Ham
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Not be sick!
25. Who do I tag? Raychel, Tia, and anyone else who will do it!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

So I have been trying to post for several days and it just hasn't happened. And now the snow is all gone and I have nothing to show for it because my camera sucks and I couldn't get the pics off of it, so I will have to try again later.

We finally got "our baby" last Sunday, the 16th of November. She is so cute and tiny! We have never had one so small.

So I will try and get some pics and stuff updated over Thanksgiving especially since my cousin Ash is coming and I can hardly wait! We are going to the Biltmore on Friday with Mom, so we should have some fun pics and stories when we return!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!

Baby false alarms and being sick...

So I have been a little mia, but it's not my fault, sort of. First, Shena & Cheeto had a couple false alarms about Sera Sera coming and so I stayed at their house with the kids, just for them to come home with no Sera Sera, and then I ended up getting sick myself and haven't worked much this week. So to entertain myself I have memorized the Twilight soundtrack and re-read Breaking Dawn. My Mom also got our tickets to see the Twilight Movie next Friday...think I am a little obsessed! :) So, I will hopefully feel better this coming week, and then have something to post about. BTW I love the Twilight Series!

About Me

Here is a fun and quick way to get to know a little about each other. Let's see how many of you respond...It's just six questions.

A) Four places that I go to over and over:
Work, church, grocery store, bathroom

B) Four people who e-mail me regularly:
Raychel, Paul, April, Nippy

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
In-N-Out (at least once a day when I am near one), Stamey's BBQ, Mom & Dad's, Brugers Bagels

D) Other places I would rather be right now:
Mexico, anywhere tropical/beach, at home w/ family, my warm bed

E) Four people I think (hope) will respond:
You can tag yourself...just tell me so I can look at yours too!

F) Four shows you watch over and over(only 4):
First 48, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Crossing Jordan, Me or the Dog

Feel free to add to my comments or post on your site. Have fun!

Slacker

So I know that I have been a slacker lately, but it is hard to find stuff to blog about when you don't have any kids...(and most don't think that Bofo counts, although I feel like I am fighting the constant urge of becoming the "crazy dog lady" of my neighborhood.) Plus, my camera sucks and my pictures look terrible (and I am SURE that it is the camera's fault, not the users) so that makes my blog boring.

So here is my life with out any pics to go with it...

Last weekend I did get to go to a family party in VA with Mom and got to see a lot of cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. I love the fact that it doesn't matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, we just pick up with where we left off, and the food is always so good! There is nothing like being with the fam and the music so loud that when you leave, you feel like you have been at an Enrique concert (because we were listening to Spanish music after all). After the Mexican party went to a wedding reception and spent a couple hours catching up with people there too. How I wish that I could just travel around the world catching up and visiting family, friends, and going to every baseball game/park possible...(because I know that there are so many that are so eager to see me! :)

Sassy came to my office yesterday and brought me lunch, that was defiantly the highlight of my week thus far! And my Mom gave me the sound track to Twilight, so that was exciting to me too! (I must say that the CD is okay, but I would have picked a totally different song for Bella's lullaby. I think that I would have my friend Nate make one up for me and just listen to him instead, Shena agreed with me too. I'll have to get with Steph on that.)

This weekend I think we are going to try and stay as close to home as possible, but since I just said that out loud, it won't happen that way. I also wanted to go for a drive to see all the leaves, they are so beautiful this time of year...

That is all that I can think of...so boring!

Tag

Tag I am it:

So here it is grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag three other people to do the same. So the book that I found was Sparks latest and I had heard some mixed opinions about it...it was good but not my favorite by far!

The Lucky One:

With his grades, Clayton could easily have handled it, but he simply couldn’t imagine spending another four years in the classroom, so he’d joined his father at the Sheriff’s Department. That was enough to placate Gramps. It seemed like he’d spent half his life placating Gramps.

Nicholas Sparks


So I do not know who to tag, so anyone can feel free to tag themselves and let me know you did so that I can read it! :) And thank you to my cousin Raychel for not tagging me to run around my house and take pics before I clean out the sink!

Kids, is there anything better?

Warning, you will probably have to be realted to the parties involved to enjoy this post!!


So we got to have the kids over on Friday night and had a ton of fun!

Sassy loves to start "fillow pights" with Tio Kris and he is always game for getting all the kids energy out so that they fall asleep fast!

Kelson had on some footy pj's that Cade packed for him but got too hot...

so Tio took him upstairs to pick out any shirt that he wanted out of our closet...I think that he picked this one because he could read Mamma Mia!...I know his Dad will love this picture!

Poor Bofo had to watch the pillow fight from his crate because he just gets too excited...I think he weighs more than Sassy now and can knock her down by just walking by her...
Mommy also had a craft to do, so we tie-dyed t-shirts for Halloween...
I have to say that they really turned out cute! Kelson is kind of funny about nick-names, I have called Cade "Boog" when he wasn't even here yet and Kelson doesn't like it when I call him that. Then we started calling Kelson peanut, and sometimes it is ok and sometimes it is not. Well, while he was doing is t-shirt he said "Tia, you can call me peanut, or peanut butter, or just peanut butter and jelly 'cause that is my favorite." He cracks me up!
This is the picture that Sassy took of Cade and I told her that I would put it on here for her...



I love that I get to have them over to spend the night then send them home and take a nap! After all, Mom & Dad got to go to Bojangles for a treat and didn't bring us any :)
I can't wait for Adam, Melissa and kids to come and visit so that we can have a jumbo cousins sleep over!!!

Bofo, the turtle dog

So I can't believe that I did this post and forgot to post it yesterday, I guess it has been a busy week...sigh

I go home every day at lunch to let Bofo out to do his business and stretch his legs and what not...but yesterday when I let him out he ran for the woods and was digging away until he found his friend, the turtle. So I made him go back in the house while I let it go back to its hole, so he wouldn't toss it around like a ball. I had to work late last night, so Kris let Bofo out and away he went to find the turtle, only Kris ended up chasing him for a good 45 minutes before one of the neighbor kids caught him for Kris. Then Kris calls me and says that he paid the kid some Scooby Doo fruit snacks for helping...what a nice guy to share his snacks.

Grocery Game & Costco

I love Sunday for lots of reasons, but I must confess that one big reason is for the paper, but not to read it, just to get the coupons out of it. Then I get to clip, organize, & make my shopping list. I get my shopping list from a place called "The Grocery Game" that tells you what is on sale and if it is a good buy or not. I usually save as much as I spend, unless a little friend comes with me who doesn't play by the coupon rule :) But it is only $10 every 8 weeks for the use of the website for the shopping list and it is more than worth it! Kris thinks that I am crazy but I really enjoy doing it and seeing how much money we save! The last time that we added it all up we had saved close to $1200 and that was 3 months ago. My "Sissy" Shena was the one that got me to do it and now Mom has even joined in so we even swap. Melissa (who would play too if she lived closer) said yesterday that "a family that clips (coupons) together, saves together", she cracks me up, but I think that she secretly wishes that she could play too, but its not as fun if you don't have people to compete against! We went to Costco on Saturday, and I am happy to say, that I only spent $17.10!!! That has to be a record for that store! My Mother on the other hand walked out with a bed...
That was pretty much my excitement for the weekend...wow blogs can be right lame/boring if you don't have kids to show...maybe I will go and take some pics of the kids to liven things up...

Esme & Carlisle

So I was blog hopping and found this somewhre and thought that it was fun...and then I had Kris take it...

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!
You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great
importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be
sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and
appreciate the kind way you always handle things.


Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!
YOU'RE A CARLISLE!

You are intelligent, strong willed and patient. A peaceful lifestyle and helping others is very important to you. You’re not a take charge kind of guy and sometimes rely too much on your feelings when you make decisions, but you always mean well and try your best to do what’s right.